An 11-year-old is going to trial for murder as an adult. "The judge's rationale: Jordan's refusal to admit guilt showed that he was not sorry for what he did and therefore liable for murder as an adult." (via Metafilter)﻿

Miss Arkansas surprisingly did NOT win the Miss America pageant, despite her triple-threat talents in singing, yodeling, and ventriloquism. Which should all be required skills for a beauty queen. (via The Daily What)

Boy meets girl, gets married, buys motorcycle. Rides it for 60,000 miles and has accident when wife is pregnant with 3rd child. (me) Wife orders motorcycle to be taken off road until all her children are grown and on their own. One day when bike is moved to a different storage location, son sits on bike and dreams of being a Jedi Master like his father. Couple grows old together and bike is not ridden for 40 years. Husband is now a grandfather of 7 and married for 50 years, when he dies of a stroke at age 71.

Son looks over the old rotting machine and finds note attached to it from his father to him. Son decides to restore the old 1958 BMW R-50 as a tribute to his father. With the help of many friends, especially Peter Nettesheim, world renowned BMW collector, bike is restored to look even better than it did when it was built in Germany.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Bryan Lewis Saunders does a self-portrait everyday. Lately he started doing a different drug every day and then doing his self-portraits -they turn out quite differently under those conditions. (via Neatorama)

6 TV Movie Facts (Including some dirt on Steven Spielberg). Turns out I admired Spielberg’s work before we even knew who he was!

"...WikiLeaks disclosures are significant precisely because they expose government deceit, wrongdoing and brutality, but the damage to innocent people has been deliberately and wildly exaggerated..."

Albino redwood trees are very rare, since they lack chlorophyll plants use to convert sunlight to nutrients. However, they can survive by sucking nutrients from its neighbor trees like a vampire. (via mental_floss)

The latest story from Allie Brosch will remind you of a horror film -one in which you are being chased through a dark forest by a horde of demons intent on devouring you. Never mind that the horde of demons was a group of six-year-old girls at a birthday party!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

It doesn’t take of lot of hard work for a cat to become famous: 1. get a job at a place where people gather, 2. have someone upload your photo to the internet, and 3. eventually, someone will request that you be featured at mental_floss! Here are more of our reader’s favorite bookstore cats in the latest edition of my series at mental_floss.

How to Avoid Getting Screwed When Using Your Debit Card. We hope vigilance is the only price you pay for the convenience of plastic

The New York City island hospital where Typhoid Mary was quarantined was abandoned in 1963, and is off-limits to the public. But we have pictures, and a look at the island’s colorful history. (via Breakfast Links)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

People all over the web are making amazing things with one hook and some yarn. If your idea of crochet is the afghan throw your great aunt made years ago, you are in for a treat! Amigurumi is the art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed characters of all kinds -and there is a vast array of those characters in craft forums, blogs, photo sites, and of course, Etsy. With so many online, I chose to focus on the more bizarre, offbeat, and downright creepy (but still cute) crocheted characters for this list I posted at mental_floss.

As part of research into LSD during the 1950s, a “normal” housewife takes a trip while being recorded for science -and for TV. She needn’t have been so nervous; it obviously was a pleasant experience for her.

Whiskey distillers used to run dairies just because they had leftover mash they could feed cows with. It didn’t matter that the “swill milk” was awful -some chalk or plaster mixed in made it appear passable.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

I didn’t watch the movie The Titanic for ten years because I already knew how it ended: the boat sank. Which is what makes the idea for a sequel that much sillier. Despite the 1980 movie Raise the Titanic and the 2010 film Titanic II (which is about another boat named Titanic II), people tried their hand at making a sequel to the 1997 disaster romance epic. Some are pretty good, considering what they had to work with. See several in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Google invites students between the ages of 13 and 18 to enter their global online science fair. Prizes include a trip to the Galapagos islands and a trip to CERN. (via Discoblog)*Down the Hatch and Straight Into Medical History. Dr. Chevalier Jackson kept objects that his patients swallowed or inhaled (and he removed) and his eccentric collection is now a museum exhibit. (via Bioephemera)

Hooked on Tonics: Snake Oils, Hangover Cures, and Other Questionable Medicine.Carl Zimmer’s list of banned words for beginning science writers. Wonderful idea: leave the jargon in class and just tell us what happens.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

One of the ways independent book stores distinguish themselves from the big chain stores is to make their shop into a literary home, where people like to hang out. Having a cat (or many cats) around is a simple way to do that -and it keeps the mice away! When 12 Bookstore Cats was posted last week, we received responses from dozens of bookstore cat fans, and tips on lots of cats to meet. Meet some of them in this list I posted at mental_floss.

A photo collection in which one family tries, over and over, to take a picture of a black dog. After many snapshots that seem to have a hole cut in them, we finally get to see the dog. (via Metafilter)

The map called Food By State assigns a representative food for each state. Enlarge to read the names and comment to argue about the selections. (via Laughing Squid)

Disney teamed up with the U.S. Office of Inter-American Affairs to send public service films to South America to combat the influence of Nazis. This nutrition film was released in 1945. (via Metafilter)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Lunar New Year begins on February 3rd. According to the Chinese zodiac, we will welcome the Year of the Rabbit. Rabbits are an attractive animal: they are adorably cute, relatively unthreatening, full of energy, and have those ridiculous long ears we can laugh at. Plus they seem to live for sex. Let’s take a look at some of our most beloved pop culture lagomorphs in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Doctor Who is going to marry his daughter. Sort of. The bride played Doctor Who’s daughter on TV, but she’s also the real daughter of a TV Doctor Who as well. Got it?

8 Terrifying Animal Swarms Created by Human Stupidity. That is Cracked’s way of saying that humans have introduced invasive species to places where they wrecked the ecosystem. Text NSFW.

Once upon a time, women college students learned to take care of babies by living with and caring for a “practice baby” from an orphanage. Too bad no one thought to find out how those babies turned out later. (via Nag on the Lake)

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Saturday, January 08, 2011

I’ve watched the snow fall all day long. I’m content to stay inside and watch, but there are those who take full advantage of snow’s slippery properties on sleds or skis. See a bunch on them in the Late Movies I posted at mental_floss. Don’t try this at home. ﻿

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Books and cats go together as well as peanut butter and jelly. You could file them under "things that are nice to curl up with" -at the same time! We featured a list of bookstore cats some time ago, but there are many stores with friendly and attractive cats. Meet a dozen of them in this list I posted at mental_floss.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Sixties Seventies. This Italian photo site documents the fashions of the 1960s and ’70s -miniskirts, bellbottoms, platform shoes, hot pants, go-go boots, and that hair!

Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness. What conditions will be included or excluded from the new edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will have far-reaching consequences for untold numbers of people. (via Metafilter)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is now in the public domain. A publisher is releasing a version with the n-word removed, hoping schools will go back to using the book, but the idea has provoked anger over messing with a classic. (via Neatorama)

French astrophotographer Thierry Legault went all the way to Oman to take a picture of a solar eclipse. The shot he wanted was only available for a split second, and he got it!

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Shopping online can be fun, even if you’re only “window shopping.” There’s an amazing array of ways to make your home stand out from all the others, or just give your guests a little shiver, with these products worthy of The Addams Family. This list is the fourth in a series of horrifying home decorating articles I've posted at mental_floss.

Hyperpipe is not easy, but I couldn’t stop playing. Connect all the pipes so the water can flow through freely.

Anger is Illogical mashes up Star Trek: TOS with the audio of a 50s educational film. And the You Got Served trailer gets mashed up with video from Fiddler on the Roof. And all is right with the world.

He heard the term “dog sledding”, but didn’t take it to mean that dogs pulled the sled. After all, it’s more fun to ride!

Monday, January 03, 2011

Instead of institutionalizing her special needs children, Lucia Gavrilita worked hard to care for them and give them full lives. She eventually became a government minister and was able to change the way disabled citizens are treated in Moldova. (via Metafilter)

A study shows that empathy has been declining among college students, even faster in recent years. Since empathy is thought to be inborn, what is causing us to lose it?

Meet the Twiblings. Author Melanie Thernstrom tells of the extraordinary measures she and her husband took to achieve parenthood, involving an egg donor and two surrogates. (via Metafilter)

NeatoShop

These are just a sample of the hundreds of neat household items, t-shirts, and toys available at the NeatoShop! Great gifts for any occasion -and don't forget to buy something for yourself, like a Miss Cellania T-shirt!